Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Take Aways

I went to the Richland Library last night for a 1-1/2 hour lecture on taking better photos. I love my digital photography club because for $25 a year, I have attended some fantastic classes for free.

I really enjoyed the speaker last night. He had a great outline and he demonstrated everything he was talking about with photos he had taken. Most of the material he presented was basic information but I've found the repetition of information helps me cement all the things I'm learning and it's interesting to hear different speakers present their little twists on photography.

The speaker last night is an engineer by day but has been involved in photography since he was a teenager. He said he mostly takes portraits now, which is not something I'm really interested in but what I did find interesting is that most of his demonstrations were of landscapes. He was very encouraging and I loved it that he used the hour and a half really well, packing a lot of information into that small amount of time.

I never take notes anymore. I carry my camera and shoot pics of the screen. I learned this tip at my very first photo class last May. If I can come away with 1 or 2 "take aways" from any class or lecture, I feel like it was time and/or money well spent.

Last night, the speaker talked about using a flashlight in night scenes to make an interesting forefront in the photo. I hope I can remember that tip ... for camping photos. He had this photo that was taken at sunset where he was inside of a small cave looking out. He placed a flashlight on the floor of the cave and it illuminated the opening of the cave, giving the picture a nice, natural frame. See below.

Taken at Lenore Lake by Scott Butner

This might have been a very boring photo if not for the illumination of the inside walls.

Thank you Susan! It's funny you mentioned LED because this lecturer actually answered a question about what kind of flashlight he uses. If I recall correctly, he said he uses the non-LED flashlights but he said it's a preference thing. I love hearing different ideas from photographers. Although there seem to be some basic "rules", I love that each photographer has their own style which means that sometimes they break the "rules". I'm having a lot of fun and hoping to upgrade my camera ... maybe next year.

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About Me

I'm a road traveler, cook, writer, photographer, mom, friend and wife. I love traveling with my guy by car or motorcycle, depending on the season. I believe love makes the world go 'round and try to stay positive! Squeezing as much life as possible into my waking hours is my goal. I'll sleep when I'm dead.